And Here Comes Claude

For those of you of a certain vintage, Claude rhymes with Maude. As in Bea Arthur. The woman who walked into a room said exactly what everyone was thinking, but nobody had the nerve to say, and dared you to disagree. She was loud. She was opinionated. She was unavoidable. And she changed the conversation just by showing up.

That is exactly what is happening right now with AI in our profession.

The Overnight Revelation That Wasn’t Overnight

It feels like the entire accounting and tax world woke up one Tuesday morning and collectively discovered artificial intelligence. My inbox is full of it. Social media is abuzz. Every conference, every webinar, every post from someone who six months ago couldn’t spell “API” is now an AI thought leader.

Here is the thing, though. This was not overnight. Some of us have been in these trenches for a while now. But I will give credit where it is due. The fact that our profession is finally paying attention? That matters. That is a big deal.

Claude, specifically, has become my go-to. I say that because the tool genuinely understands the nuance of what we do. It does not just spit out generic answers. It thinks.

I have used it to outline CE presentations, pressure-test arguments before submitting, review engagement letters, and even brainstorm better ways to structure my workflows in my practice. It is not replacing me. It is making me faster, sharper, and honestly, a little more creative in how I approach problems. The number of projects I have on the horizon from brainstorming is a little overwhelming but utterly exciting.

And here is something else that matters to me. Anthropic, the company behind Claude, actually seems to have a backbone. They talk openly about AI safety, about responsible development, about the risks of the technology they are building. In a space full of companies racing to ship first and ask questions never, Anthropic is at least trying to have the conversation about guardrails before the wheels come off. And when the government came knocking, looking to use AI in ways that raised serious ethical questions, Anthropic pushed back. They did not just roll over for a contract or a handshake with power. That is a total Maude move. She never had any patience for people who refused to say the hard thing out loud, and she sure as hell was not going to smile and go along with something she knew was wrong just because the person asking had authority.

The Morning Rush

I wake up every morning now with a list of ideas that did not exist the night before. Processes I want to redesign. Client communications, I want to rethink. Workflows I want to tear apart and rebuild from scratch. That is not hyperbole. That is a normal Thursday. After a cappuccino, of course.

AI has turned my practice into a laboratory. Every engagement is a chance to ask, “Could this be better? Could this be faster? Could this be more accurate?” And the answer, almost every single time, is yes.

If you are a tax professional and you are not at least experimenting with these tools, I need you to hear this with all the love and respect I can muster: you are falling behind. Not next year. Not in five years. Right now.

But Let’s Not Be Stupid About It

And here is where I put on the brakes, because this is where most of the AI cheerleading falls apart.

We need to talk about what we are actually doing when we use these tools. Every prompt you type, every document you upload, every client name and Social Security number you feed into a system (DO NOT DO THAT!), that data goes somewhere. Do you know where? Do you know who has access to it? Do you know what the retention policy is?

If your answer to any of those questions is “I don’t know,” then you have a problem. And it is not a theoretical problem. It is a Circular 230 problem and a legal problem. It is a data breach problem. It is a “your client is suing you” problem. But, after a long day of CE, it will be something that we all talk about at the bar, so there is that.

I say this as someone with 30 years in IT and security. The enthusiasm is great. The ignorance about data security is terrifying. I do not say this as some smug tech guy with a god complex; I want people to understand technology and use it. But responsibly.

Here is what you need to understand at a minimum before you let AI anywhere near your practice:

What data are you feeding it, and does your engagement letter cover that? Who owns the output? Where is the data stored, and for how long? Did you get a 7216 disclosure if needed? Is your state’s data privacy law even on your radar?

If you cannot answer those questions, stop. Learn. Then proceed.

The Monster in the Mirror

There is a real conversation to be had about what we are building here. AI is not just another software tool. It is a system that learns, adapts, and scales in ways our profession has never dealt with before. The IRS is using it. The states are using it. And they are not using it to necessarily make your life easier.

When I talk about “what monster are we creating,” I am not being dramatic. I am asking a genuine question that our profession has not seriously wrestled with yet. What happens when AI can prepare a return better than a human? What happens when the value proposition we have built our careers on gets automated?

The answer is not to hide from it. The answer is to be the one who understands it well enough to stay ahead of it.

The Bottom Line

AI, Claude included, is the most significant shift in how we practice since e-file. Maybe bigger. The professionals who embrace it responsibly will build practices that are faster, more accurate, and more profitable. The ones who ignore it will wonder what happened.

And the ones who use it recklessly, without understanding data security, without thinking about ethics, without considering the implications? They will be the cautionary tales the rest of us reference in our CE classes.

So yes, here comes Claude. And just like Maude, he is not asking for permission. He is not waiting for the profession to catch up. He is already in the room, already changing the conversation, and already making some people very uncomfortable.

The only question is whether you are going to change with it. I have more to say about this topic; stay tuned.

What are you most eager to learn about Claude? What have you done with it so far?